Perhaps the most anticipated of the first round match, if you can call a first round “anticipated”, was a first round match between Ernests Gulbis and Marcos Baghdatis.  For most players, even players that play in the main draw of a Masters 1000 event, winning a title, possibly 2 in a year, is considered a great achievement.   Both these players have already won an event in 2010.  Baghdatis won in Sydney just before the Australian Open and Gulbis won in Delray Beach just before Indian Wells.

On paper, it would seem Baghdatis would be favored.  He has a 4-0 head-to-head over Gulbis including 2 victories in 2009.  However, these head-to-heads can occasionally be deceptive.  In particular, fans know that Gulbis has been a wild talent, at times, working without a coach, and failing to maximize his talent.  Last year, he began working with Hernan Gumy, an Argentine who last worked with the also wildly underutiilzed talent of Marat Safin.  Gumy has been able to add patience and creativity to the Gulbis game.

For those who haven’t watch Gulbis, it might not be hard to guess that Gulbis’s strength are his serve and his forehand.  Gulbis has begun harnessing his serve and this has lead to a lot of easy holds for him.  Baghdatis had few answers for Gulbis’s serve.  Weak returns lead to putaways.  Meanwhile, when points did go for extended rallies, Gulbis pulled out drop shots galore, with one point leading to a Baghdatis ‘tweener (he didn’t win the point).  Gulbis’s solid play lead to an easy 6-2, 6-2 win.

Gulbis’s run may be over, before it gets started, however.  He gets to play Roger Federer in the next round.  This isn’t, obviously, an easy 2nd round match.  Federer has been known to have to work his way into tournaments.  He’d probably have rather seen pretty much anyone else.  In any case, this will be one of the more highly anticipated second round matches.

Phillipp Kohlschreiber needed some work to beat Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay, beating him 6-7, 6-1, 6-4.

Two upsets, both Spaniards.  Albert Montanes lost to wildcard Paolo Lorenzi of Italy, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.  Even more shocking was Ferrero’s loss to Santiago Giraldo of Colombia, 6-0, 6-3.  Apparently Giraldo was hitting lights out, hitting over 30 winners in his win.  Ferrero may also be somewhat exhausted having played quite a few tournaments already, where he’s gone deep into the tournament.

Finally, speaking of big serves, John Isner won his first clay match on his 25th birthday.  He beat Horacio Zeballos in 3 tough sets where he hit 20 aces and only lost serve once.  Zeballos recently made the semis in Houston losing to Juan Ignacio Chela.  Isner got a break late in the third set then had to fight off nerves before holding to win.

Got to give credit for Tennis Channel to use the British guys (Robby Koenig, Jason Goodall, and sometimes American, Doug Adler) for their coverage.  These guys travel to all the Masters 1000 tournaments and so their knowledge of tennis is both current and immense.  They also have a good idea which matches are interesting to watch without having to pay nationalistic allegiance (except occasionally to Murray).  Thus, a match that might seem rather uneventful to the untrained eye, Igor Andreev vs. Juan Monaco, is seen as a tough first rounder, and there is preference to show this over Julien Benneteau vs Sam Querrey (they are in a tight first set match, both pairs).

The announcers pointed out a few interesting tidbits.  Monaco trained in Spain at about the same time Murray was there (I believe Murray mentioned this when he lost to Monaco last year in Rome).  Also, they plan to change the schedule so Madrid is the 2nd of the two Masters 1000 clay event and Rome is 3rd.  It will be played at the same time as the women’s event.  This would make at least 3 events (outside the Slams) that men/women play at (Indian Wells, Miami, Rome).  I know there are a few others, but none come to mind offhand.